A Little Love for the Image Ad

A Watch Sitting on a Wooden Stool

I was looking through magazines earlier this week. It may sound strange, but I actually look through magazines for the print ads and not the articles. In my world, articles have to work harder than print ads to earn my reading time.

In the hero image of this article is a print ad I enjoyed from Urban Jürgensen, even though I had no clue at first what it was selling. Was it an interior design ad, or was it the watch sitting on the chair? After about three seconds, my mind settled on the watch.

After a quick online search, I learned that Urban Jürgensen is a 250-year-old watchmaking company. Both the ad and the company’s website come across as deeply boutique. The design language of the website has a strong Hendrick’s Ginpersonality to it. Ironically, Hendrick’s is a company with no real 250-year history that built a fictional past to feel like it did.

The Charm of a Certain Kind of Luxury

Now knowing this, I let my mind relax and start finding context in the ad. We have a watch sitting on an old wooden stool with a toy hanging from it. Ok, this is a boutique watchmaker channeling the craftsmanship and workshop charm of an old-world European toy maker.

Now I think that’s very cool. Let’s face it, a watch collection is really just a toy collection for a high-income man who sees himself as more refined than the guy with the car collection. Not a knock. I love watches and would enjoy having a collection myself. But I have two problems. One, I’m not on that income tier. Two, I really do like having the weather on my wrist.

There is an energy to this image ad, mainly because Urban Jürgensen is doing its own thing. The brand font fits the visual perfectly, and the color selection blends from the photograph into the background like a painted portrait.

Urban Jürgensen Knows What it is not

Urban Jürgensen knows it’s not Rolex, Omega, or even Panerai. It also knows it’s not a “challenger” brand trying to disrupt the luxury watch industry.

Instead, the company decided to create an ad that lets it be itself. I’m not blind to the fact that this is the ultimate luxury print ad, where the unspoken rule is: “If you have to ask who we are and what we sell, you probably can’t afford it.”

As you can tell from the start of this article, since I didn’t know them at first, I clearly can’t afford them either.

Still, we should look at that for what it says about the power of an image ad and why this one worked with so little information.

• The image caught my attention.
• There was almost nothing to read, so my mind started interpreting the visuals.
• Once curiosity piqued, I looked up the company and gave the website a scroll.
• Now I know who and what Urban Jürgensen is.
• End result: I’ve decided they are a watch brand I like.

Sometimes we overthink these things and want to force them into analytics, dashboards, and metrics. We forget we are people. One of the gifts of being human is that, if you have the patience to sit back for a few minutes, you begin to realize we experience something close to nonverbal communication in surprisingly similar ways.

The Barrier Language Removes

Image ads at this level work because they depend on a language everyone on earth already speaks: visual language. There are other side benefits too.

• No words means the ad can be reformatted endlessly and quickly.
• No words means it can appear in almost any magazine in the world.
• No words means it will probably perform better in award competitions because it won’t alienate a judging panel with a language they do not speak.

Words carry their own cognitive load. That’s why a large part of copywriting is saying as much as possible with as few words as possible. It’s harder than people think.

Great copywriting is its own form of poetry. The difference is that poetry compresses emotional meaning, while copywriting compresses a complex concept into a simple emotional truth. One is meant to be meditated on. The other is meant to be understood instantly.

A Comparison of Big Luxury Watch Brands

At the top of the luxury watch food chain, a different game is being played. This is an ultra-competitive space. Above are recent ads from Rolex, Omega, and Panerai. This is their version of the image ad.

Each brand is staking out its own claim at the top of the market. Let’s look at how each ad attempts to position not just the watch, but the brand as a whole.

Rolex Positioning - Reach for The Crown

Omega Positioning - How Gold Should Shine

Panerai Positioning - Innovation from the Depths Ad

You can the overlap an overlap and angles each brand takes to compete for the same finite space in the consumers mind.

Urban Jürgensen Positioning

Let's look at the ad that started this article:

For discerning watch collectors and lovers of traditional craftsmanship, Urban Jürgensen is the independent haute horology brand that delivers quiet refinement and intellectual luxury because only Urban Jürgensen combines centuries-old watchmaking heritage with hand-finished classical craftsmanship produced in extremely limited numbers.

Why Image Ads Still Work

In a world where we’ve optimized words to no end in marketing, we’ve also tried to do the same with visual language. This ad is a reminder that image advertising still has power on its own. No A/B testing required.